use strict; use warnings; $SIG{CHLD} = 'IGNORE'; my $max_procs = 3; # don't use strings when you want numbers my @work = qw(fw1 fw2 fw3 fw4 fw5); my %kids; while (@work or keys %kids) { if (@work and $max_procs > keys %kids) { my $fw = shift @work; my $pid = fork; die "Can not fork!" if ! defined $pid; if ($pid) { $kids{$pid} = $fw; } else { exec "remotelogfile $fw logfile > /var/$fw.log"; die; } } else { my $pid = waitpid(-1, 0); delete $kids{$pid}; } }